Employers watching Windows 8 launch

Joe Calacsan demos Windows 8, which launched Friday along with the Microsoft Surface tablet. Inspired by touchscreens, the new software features these big "live" tiles that gives you at a glance information without ever opening anything. An audience of 20 gathered at the South Coast Plaza Microsoft store in Costa Mesa. CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Microsoft releases its long-awaited, touch-centric Windows 8 operating system today, and businesses especially are closely watching how consumers respond before deciding how – or even whether – to deploy the new software in the workplace.

The new operating system focuses on touch-screen experiences and contains new features – such as widget-like tiles in place of a traditional desktop – that could be useful for productivity. The radically different system, however, might confuse some PC users.

Ingram Micro, Orange County's largest company by revenue, is in the dual position of preparing teams to train thousands of resellers who will sell Windows to companies worldwide while at the same time weighing how to roll out the new operating system on 20,000 computers in the company's offices around the globe. Ingram Micro plans to adopt the new system, but the details and timing of the rollout will depend of various factors, including whether company workers request the new software, said the company's vice president of information systems, Jonathan Chihorek.

"I think consumer impact on enterprise adoption of Windows 8 is going to be a large factor," Chihorek said. "I want to use the same technology in the workplace as I do at home."

Windows 8 has been years in development and the new system is the most radical overhaul in decades, refocusing from mouse and keyboard to a touch interface. In place of the overlapping windows of 2009 and earlier, the new system has a colorful tile-based interface already deployed in living rooms on Microsoft's Xbox 360 and on its latest phones.

When pressed, the tiles launch apps. Without being touched, these "live" boxes provide constantly updated, at-a-glance information – such as a slideshow of photos, new messages or your next appointment. Consumers, however, could be faced with a potentially confusing experience because Windows 8 also contains the classic mouse-friendly desktop layered underneath the new touch interface, said Donna Tapellini, senior editor at Consumer Reports.

"Here's the thing that's going to throw people – people that are used to Windows like the little round globe-shaped start button on their desktop. And that's gone," Tapellini said. "What you get instead is this start screen with these tiles."

Chihorek, however, points out that if people already use other Microsoft systems at home, such as the Xbox 360, "now you have most of what you need to know to leverage the user interface (of Windows 8) in a very productive way."

"Our global perspective is we're not going to only ensure everything works from a technical basis ... but going to see what people's interests are and how they're adopting these new systems," he said.

The success or failure of Windows 8 could be a make or break moment for Microsoft, which already has lost its status as market leader.

Forrester analyst Frank Gillett said that while the company still holds a 90 percent share of the PC market, Microsoft holds only 30 percent of the overall personal device market. Smartphone sales exploded between 2008 and 2012, from 140 million to more than 660 million. Then tablets took off in 2010 with virtually no response from Microsoft till today, with the release of the Surface tablet featuring a version of Windows 8. Microsoft releases its next generation smartphone software Oct. 29.

By Gillett's reckoning, Windows 8 is a major step toward stopping the losses and could help Microsoft keep about a third of the overall personal gadget market through 2016, sharing with Google and Apple.

"Windows will endure a slow start as traditional PC users delay upgrades, while those eager for Windows tablets jump in," Gillett wrote on his blog, which is geared toward IT executives. "After a slow start in 2013, Windows 8 will take hold in 2014, keeping Microsoft relevant and the master of the PC market, but simply a contender in tablets, and a distant third in smartphones."

Bottom line: Windows 8 may be inescapable if you need to upgrade your PC. "If you're buying a computer now you're going to get Windows 8," Tapellini said. "Whether you like it or not, pretty much you're going to get Windows 8."

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